Man Injured While Protecting Niece And Her Daughter From Pit Bull

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The victim of a pit bull attack is at Kaiser South hospital where he is being treated for multiple bites.
Back where the attack happened, tempers flare as Sacramento Animal Control took the dog away, his tail wagging, but his face bloody.

“I was like, ‘oh my God,’ and I ran in and I slammed the door shut,” said Deborah McPherson, who claims the dog came after her first.

The way Deborah tells it, Cowboy, the pit bull from across the street, came after her and her six-year-old daughter.

“I was just running and he started chasing me,” said Deborah’s daughter Natalee. “I was scared.”

She was chased, that is, until their family member Scott saved the day. They say he intervened and was attacked by the pit bull. He even tried fending the dog off with a knife.

“He was knocked to the ground and the dog was just tearing at him,” said Deborah.

Finally the dog was pulled off and Scott was rushed to the hospital with deep gashes on his face and legs. To the McPhersons, he’s a hero who kept a little girl out of harm’s way.

But what does the pit bull’s owner think?

“Dude is an idiot; he’s always drunk,” said Paul Quiroz, the dog’s owner. “His own nephew came over here and said, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if my uncle was antagonizing the dog.’”

Quiroz insists Cowboy didn’t chase after the family across the street, but instead got off his leash with his sights set on this black cat up in a tree. He says the dog had since it was two weeks old is not a violent dog.

“I mean, my kids play with him, they ride him, they stick their hand in his mouth and he just licks them to death,” said Quiroz.

Quiroz’s neighbors across the street would probably disagree with that statement. Now it’s up to animal control to decide Cowboy’s fate.